The final of the first major event of the tennis season on clay, the Monte Carlo Masters 1000already has finalists for Sunday: Russian Andrei Rublev (#6 in the world) and Danish Rune Holger (No. 9).

It will be the third time that the two players have met, with a victory for each so far: the Dane won last year in the round of 16 at Paris-Bercy and the Russian this year in the round of 16 at the Australian Open in five tight sets. .

“I hope this time is different!” Rune declared when the result of their last confrontation occurred to him. “I had a lot of bad luck, but he played very well. We both played very well,” he added.

Rublev, 25, earned the right to fight for the title in the Principality after beating the American in the first semifinal Taylor Fritz (N.10), of 5-7, 6-1 and 6-3.

The match was stopped for 1 hour and 45 minutes due to rain, with the score in Rublev’s favor 5-7, 6-1, 3-2.

On the restart, Fritz missed the kickoff again and had to save three match points on his next serve, but could do nothing on the fourth match ball, this time with a serve from Rublev, who also ended the match in a vacuum set to.

“The rain, the wind, the cold… Despite everything we played good tennis, with a good game,” said Rublev, who had lost his last three duels against Fritz, all on hard surfaces.

Rublev was already a finalist on Monaco clay in 2021, but then lost the decisive match against Stephen Tsitsipascurrent number three in the world and who was eliminated by Fritz on Friday.

In this way, Fritz is left without the possibility of becoming the first American tennis player to win the title in Monte Carlo.

In the Open Era (since 1969), only five Americans made it to the final in the Principality and none of them lifted the trophy (Vitas Gerulaitis in 1979, Jimmy Connors in 1981, Mel Purcell in 1983, Jimmy Arias in 1987 and Aaron Krickstein in 1992).

In the second semifinal, also interrupted by the rain, the victory went to Rune, who beat the Italian Jannik sinner (1-6, 7-5 and 7-5), in a duel between two of the tennis players, together with the Spanish Carlos Alcarazcalled to take over from Federer, Nadal and Djokovic.

Sinner (21 years old and number 8 Atp) easily scored the first set 6-1 in just half an hour.

After the rain stoppage, the Dane reacted and tied in a set (7-5), overcoming the public’s attitude. clearly in favor of Italianand conceding a scoreless serve ended the quarter at 6-4.

In the third set Sinner struggles to keep serve, but saves five break points, more due to Rune’s impatience in the decisive moments than due to the Italian’s merits, moving up to 5-5.

“Sometimes I’m impatient, but thanks to my team I learn to be patient,” admitted the young Rune after the match.

The Dane takes advantage of it in the eleventh game and on the sixth ball he realizes the ‘break’ which gives him the victory.

It will be the second final of a Masters 1000 for Rune, who already won the Paris-Bercy last year, but on hard courts and indoors, against number 1 Novak Djokovic.